


Running for Home

by gunpowdereyes



Category: Glee
Genre: Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 05:05:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3368897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunpowdereyes/pseuds/gunpowdereyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt knows what he has to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running for Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is a break-up fic for Kurt and Walter only in the sense of ending their time together as friends; I really don't consider (or I choose not to consider) what's occurred between them as dating.

 

The end, when it inevitably comes, is in itself without fanfare.  

Kurt has a text from Rachel, filled with all her typical excitable punctuation abuse.   _OMG Blaine and Karofsky broke up!!!! Did you know?!   Is that why he was at McKinley the other day?????  YOU HAVE TO CALL HIM!_

He has composed nineteen texts to Blaine and rehearsed three conversation starters and four variations of voicemail messages, in case Blaine doesn’t pick up.  He’s considered that it might not even be true, although reliable sources (Sam, who – well, is more reliable than Rachel, anyway) have confirmed that Blaine now lives alone.  He’s considered all the reasons this might have happened.  Why he might be the reason – why he might not.  

He has no new messages.

He has the image of Blaine standing in the choir room, looking stunned and lost, burned into his mind.  So different from the level-headed man who’s been trying with varying success to protect his heart from letting Kurt back into it these past weeks.  So upsettingly like the boy who handed over every precious thing and trusted Kurt to keep it safe, when Kurt had just given it back to him.  Kurt knows what he has to do; every muscle, every nerve, pulls to run. 

He has one thing he should probably do first.

“I think we both know that us spending time together was mainly just a way for you to distract yourself from Blaine,” says Walter without preamble.

“Oh.”  That was not quite the reaction to ‘we need to stop seeing each other’ that Kurt had expected.  He didn’t even get to say ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’  But this doesn’t feel like a revelation, or a disappointment.  “I’m sorry.  Am I that transparent?”

“Well.”  Walter smiles fondly.  “You did talk about him all the time.  I do mean all the time.”  Kurt manages to have the good grace to blush. 

"Kurt.”  He uses Kurt’s name as a full statement, but not in the way that Blaine does.  Nothing has ever been the way it is with Blaine.  It seems ridiculous to have hoped it could be, looking at it now.  It turns out that the only part of this he hates is that he’s led Blaine to believe that this was actually something other than an echo of his longing for something else.  “You need to understand that I spent a very long time trying to fit into a life that wasn’t meant for me.  That doesn’t mean it was all bad — my ex-wife is a wonderful woman and a better friend than I ever deserved.  My kids are the light of my life.  But trying to make something be enough when it’s a replacement for the _right_ thing … it never actually works.  It just makes you miserable in the end.

“You don’t know how lucky you are.  You know exactly what you want.  You know where you belong, and who you belong with.  Listen, you’re a fabulous, handsome, talented young man with a whole world ahead of him, and I know I don’t have a ton of room to be giving you advice.  But I can say this: don’t put yourself in a place where you end up regretting losing something instead of taking the chance to have it.  You’re crazy about that kid, and from what I can tell, he’s crazy about you.  Of all things, don’t let this be a thing that you regret.”

“Walter …” Kurt is lost for words, pleasantly surprised by the magnanimity if aware that he might not deserve it.  Although even as the friendship it’s been, it’s an understatement to say Kurt’s not the only one who entered into it under false pretenses.  But Kurt can already see this fading in his rear-view mirror, so much bright light ahead, and he can afford to be kind in return.  “I promise I won’t.  And I won’t regret meeting you either.  I hope you meet someone too, someone who makes you …” Feel like Blaine makes me feel.  Happy like Blaine makes me happy.  Need to be there with him, five minutes ago, yesterday, forever.

Walter just nods, smiles, gives his shoulder a squeeze.  “I’m sure I will.  You take care of yourself.”

“You too,” Kurt says, and he’s already moving, his heart and his smile widening to break.  He has Blaine’s new address in hand.  

He has a home to finally, finally return to.  


End file.
